The present invention relates to a paper transferring apparatus in an electrophotograph type printer. More particularly, it relates to a paper transferring apparatus capable of treating rectangular cut papers (herein below, referred to as cut papers) and a continuous folded paper (herein below, referred to as a continuous paper).
There has been widely used a high speed line printer as an output apparatus for a computer. Various methods of printing have been practically used for the line printer. For instance, there has been known a dot impact method as a mechanical printing method. On the other hand, there has been known a non-impact method such as an optical printer. Since the optical printer can reduce noises in operation and enable high speed printing, it has been increasingly used in recent years.
FIG. 4 is a side view of a conventional paper transferring apparatus used for a dot impact type printer.
The conventional paper transferring apparatus comprises a platen 112 for printing, a printing head 113 disposed in the vicinity of the platen 112, a cut paper feeding roller 114 and a paper pressing roller 115, both being adapted to feed cut papers 111, and a tractor 117 for feeding a continuous paper 116.
In the conventional paper transferring apparatus, when the cut papers 111 are used, printing and paperfeeding operations for the cut papers are carried out by making the cut paper feeding roller 114 contact with the platen 112 as shown in FIG. 4A.
When the continuous paper 116 is used, the cut paper feeding roller 114 is separated from the platen 112 and the continuous paper is fed by the tractor 117 as shown in FIG. 4B. Thus, the conventional printer can treat the cut papers and the continuous paper.
For the high speed line printer, the continuous paper is mainly used. However, there is a possibility that continuous printing is carried out for the cut papers depending on kinds of information outputted from a computer or the purpose of use of the information. In this case, cut portions 119 are formed in a continuous paper 118 so that each of the cut papers 111 can be held by the cut portions 119. Then, it is possible to carry out continuous printing for the cut papers. The abovementioned method of printing is disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application 194544/1985, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application 8152/1985 and so on.
On the other hand, a non-impact type high speed printer, for instance, an apparatus for changing information outputted from a computer to a visible image such as characters or figures by utilizing an electrophotograph method, inclusively, uses a continuous paper or a roll paper.
In such electrophotograph type printer, when it is desired that the cut papers and the continuous paper be used, it is necessary to adapt a method as shown in FIG. 5 among various conventional methods since the known electrophotograph type printer requires only the continuous paper. However, when the printing operations are carried out for the cut papers held by the continuous paper, it is required for the continuous paper to have a certain strength, and therefore a relatively thick paper is required for such continuous paper. Further, since the cut portions are needed for the continuous paper, the manufacturing cost becomes high. Furthermore, an additional operation of folding the cut papers to the cut portions of the continuous paper is necessary.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a paper transferring apparatus for a high speed electrophotograph type printer which is capable of treating not only a continuous paper but also cut papers; being manufactured at a low cost, and capable of switching a kind of paper to be used without complicated operations.
According to the present invention, there is provided a paper transferring apparatus for an electrophotograph type printer which comprises an apparatus main body having a side surface where a hopper for receiving cut papers and an inlet port for a continuous paper are provided, and the other surface opposite said side surface where a discharge port for discharging the cut papers and the continuous paper is formed; a cut paper transferring means for transferring the cut papers from the hopper through a transferring section to the discharge port and a continuous paper transferring means for transferring the continuous paper from the inlet port through the transferring section to the discharge port which are independently provided in the apparatus main body and a common driving source for driving both transferring means; the cut paper transferring means having a connection/disconnection means which performs connection and disconnection of the rotational force of the driving means to the cut paper transferring means upon receiving a control signal; the continuous paper transferring means having a first tractor at the inlet port side and a second tractor behind said transferring section, which are connected to the driving source through a power transmission means, and a connection/disconnection means interposed between the power transmission means and the driving source, which performs connection and disconnection of the rotational force of the driving source to the first and second tractors upon receiving a control signal; and a control means which selects cut paper mode or continuous paper mode on the basis of an input signal and which provides the control signal to each of the connection/disconnection means on the basis of a paperfeeding instruction or a printing instruction under a selected mode.